Man charged with assaulting Lorain girl

LORAIN — A Lorain woman awoke in the middle of the night last week to a shocking sight: A man in her home was sexually assaulting her pre-teen daughter just outside of her room, police said.

Michael Pinkney, 32, of 137 Bohannon Court in Elyria, was charged with gross sexual imposition and rape for the incident that took place about 2:15 a.m. April 23 in a house on the 300 block of West Ninth Street in Lorain.

Pinkney was arrested about 5:30 p.m. that same day at his mother’s house on the 1100 block of Washington Avenue, police said.

The woman, who got up in the night to go to the bathroom, police said, grabbed a phone to call police, but the man — later identified as Pinkney — pulled his pants up, grabbed the phone from her and threw it on the floor before running from the house, the report said.

The woman followed him outside and Pinkney yelled, “You don’t understand, it’s not what you think. You’re going to ruin my life,” and fled westbound down West Ninth Street, the police report said.

The woman’s daughter said Pinkney pushed her face into a pillow, keeping her from making a sound, and raped her, the report said.

The woman told police Pinkney might have forced himself into the house through a door on the east side of the building that wasn’t closed all the way.

Police found Pinkney’s jacket on a dining chair inside the house. Outside, police dogs tracked Pinkney’s scent to a house on the 300 block of West Eighth Street where Pinkney’s sister lived. They searched his sister’s house, his mother’s house and his house in Elyria but couldn’t find Pinkney immediately after the incident.

Police returned to Pinkney’s mother’s house about 5:15 p.m. that day. When they arrived, Pinkney’s mother told police that he was there. Officers found him in the attic and took him to Lorain County Jail, where he was held on a $1 million bond Wednesday.

An hour after the arrest, the woman whose daughter was assaulted told police Pinkney’s family members were calling and texting her, threatening to get her if they saw her outside, according to a police report.